Meet the Author

As an award winning blogger, David Butler helps others explore the world of craft beer in Northern Colorado. Fermentedly Challenged helps you find great places to enjoy a beer, listen to music, enjoy a meal and find a discount on your next pint. Follow along on social media - @ChipperDave on Twitter and on Facebook.

Friday, September 30, 2011

Beers - Disco Heads - Bagpipes - Slime Green Shirts! The 2011 Great American Beer Festival opened with great fanfare last night in downtown Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. An estimated crowd of over 12,000 attendees, organizers and volunteers all gathered to pour some 2500+ different beers from over 500 breweries.

For many, the evening at the GABF starts out in a nearly mile-long line (2-3 people wide). At precisely 5:30pm, the doors opened and in no time the throngs of beer enthusiasts files in through the doors, up the stairs, past the bagpipes and into the convention center.

I managed to get in line around 4:45pm last night and was in the middle of the massive line. I was able to get inside the door in around 10 minutes. I was very pleased with how fast the lines went. I had my ID checked, my wristband attached and got my tasting cup without any hassles.Inside, I don't remember how many samplings I had, however I did take video notes on every single beer I tasted. I decided to forgo a pad and pen for a video log this year. I think it made note taking so a lot quicker and got me into a lot more interesting conversations with my fellow attendees as well.

Below are just a handful of images I scraped from the videos from the Thursday night GABF session (September 29, 2011). These images are low res, but manage to capture the essence of last nights session.

Scenes from the Thursday night 2011 GABFClick any image below to enlarge.